Parenting a Child with a Cancer Diagnosis

In the last couple of weeks, I have faced something within my myself that has been a natural consequence of Felix’s diagnosis – my fear of being away from the children. I was completely unaware that this fear existed until recently and what an eye......

Three is a gang. Three is a Tribe. Three is a Team! When our second child was around 18 months we made the decision to ‘try’ for a third. Initially, my husband was reluctant as we already had a girl and a boy and in......

Two years ago today I sat and wrote my first blog, ‘And so the story looks like this’. I can remember it well. It symbolised the start of my re-engagement with the world following Felix’s diagnosis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Whilst this was just a......

My usual calm and compliant nine-year-old turns into a different boy when armed with his controller and headset. He automatically adopts the persona of a testosterone-fuelled, alpha-male as he struts the Fortnite Terrain with his team by his side. This is what I despise the most.......

This is written from the hearts of over 50 parents of children with cancer. These words are borne from heartache, love and experience. What you do and say makes this thing a whole lot better for me. You… You… Keep in regular contact and adopt......

As both a parent and a teacher I have always debated the value of homework. There have been a few things this week that have happened that have swung my viewpoint. On Tuesday evening I casually asked my son, you know the one being treated......

Those dreaded words echo down the phone, Felix has Leukaemia. That phone call etched in our ears on that Thursday evening in January. We packed our bags in tears we couldn’t wait to be there to comfort our anxious, distressed family. Those were the first......

It’s not because I’m precious about my hair. Far from it. Growing up in the 1980s with a hairdresser Mum, I have had every style and colour you could imagine. Some were atrocious, but I always had it in my head that a bad haircut/colour......

Dear Bradley, The world is a lesser place without you. The world is a lesser place without the children who have gone too soon. Your smile, your love, your charisma banished from this world forever. Your future, their future, our future changed forever. Bradley, thank......

My son will sit his SATs next week along with his friends. I am so proud and grateful for this because in January 2016 he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and will continue to be in treatment until 2019. I have watched him as......

There are families and children up and down the country getting into a real pickle about the up and coming Primary SATs tests. I am currently taking at least 3 calls per day from anxious parents and carers worried about how their children are going......

It’s all so bizarre. I laid in bed with my nearly teenage daughter before she went to sleep last night and she asked “how’s your blogging going Mum?”. I was quite taken aback because if there is one thing that my daughter is good at......

I was starkly reminded of this at the beginning of the week. It was Monday morning and, as usual, I gave the kids their 5 minute nudge to get ready to leave for school: socks on, shoes on, lunches and water bottles in bag and......

I cannot put into words how much I relish and enjoy the school run. For me it symbolises how far we have all come in this last year. I watch as Rufus and Felix scoot, laugh and make mischief on their way to school. They......

My son has no hair. When we are out he will always wear a hat. This upsets his brother. His brother would love him not to wear a hat. He will not leave the house without one. He was told at a local theme park......

I had the pleasure of bumping into an old friend this evening at a local, well-known supermarket. I had bribed the boys with the promise of sweets to cycle to the shop so that we could enjoy the last of the evening sun and I really......

So, you’ve delivered your beautiful bundle of joy and before you know it, you’re being asked about when you’re going back to work and arrangements for ‘the baby’. I have had the pleasure of this rite of passage three times over, and each time the......

We all like to mark occasions in hours, days, weeks, months and years. I am acutely aware that the six month anniversary of Felix’s diagnosis is just around the corner which, of course, has triggered a period of reflection and contemplation. I could use this......

I’ll never forget those first couple of days following Felix’s diagnosis. We were welcomed onto the Oncology ward with compassion and empathy but the thing that I could not get over was how cool, calm and collected the other Mums looked. They looked at ease,......

Well, this is a whole new world from a different viewpoint. It’s that time of year when teachers are filing away their information and data for their current classes to make way for the profiles of their new children. For me, this has always been......

As a parent and teacher, I am more than aware of the importance of positive attachment between the child and the primary care-giver. Having worked in both mainstream and specialist settings, I have worked with children who have chronic attachment disorder and for whom, therapeutic intervention......

Last week in hospital Felix broke his heart. He wasn’t crying because he couldn’t go to school or play football or that he was in pain. He was crying because he had been told that his levels were still too high, he couldn’t go home.......

It’s the same every birthday but I can’t help but fondly remember their birth. Each one was magical and unique in their own way. With my first-born, her birth made me a Mum. As it was my first time, I approached the labour of my......

Life goes on. This is my daughter’s current mantra and how apt it is too. It is an indication of where she is both psychologically and spiritually which is much different to the “you only live once” phase we went through when Felix was first diagnosed. This was an immediate......

I am an amateur in comparison to many. My limited experience of hospital stays means that I have yet to make sense of the many intricate routines and relationships that exist on the oncology ward. However, it is a world that I am getting to......

The sibling dynamic changed within days of the leukaemia diagnosis. Before diagnosis, the dynamic of the Team Brown kids was pretty straightforward. I can’t imagine it is in any way different to most other sibling relationships. Big Girl Brown led her team of little ducklings.......

All children, at some time in their development will fall out of kilter with their peers. Whether it is when they start to walk, talk, read or write or maybe when they begin to grasp the subtlety of social communication and interaction, children develop at......

Kerry Brown – Writer

Mrs Brown’s Blogs is an honest and frank account of life, family and education. From a parenting and educational perspective, it explores the finer details of daily life with the added dimension of having a child with cancer..

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